Canadian Tire is lighting up the holiday season and spreading Christmas cheer across the country with the launch of its state-of-the-art, 30-foot Christmas Spirit Tree. The tree, unveiled today at Toronto’s Union Station, has 3,000 LED lights that are powered by messages of positive Christmas spirit on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter and posts to ChristmasSpiritTree.ca

“At this time of the year, everyone’s talking about holiday spirit. We wanted to show it,” says Rob Shields, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Canadian Tire. “Canadian Tire is thrilled to see the Christmas Spirit Tree come to life and celebrate the joy of the holiday season with all Canadians.”

According to a recent survey* commissioned by Canadian Tire, 37 per cent of Canadians won’t mail cards this year, but rather will use online channels. In fact, 28 per cent said they share their Christmas spirit by posting messages on social networks; 16 per cent send e-cards and 8 per cent use Skype or iChat. The research conducted by Canadian Tire also found that in 2010 more than 1.6 million social media messages were posted about the Christmas season inCanada.

The Christmas Spirit Tree will capture all real-time blog posts, tweets, public Facebook messages and other online content containing specific Christmas keywords and transform them into data that is then visualized via the lights on the tree. Canadians may also text message “Christmas” to 70734 to affect the lights on the tree.

The brightness and colour of the lights will vary depending on the source of the messages. For example, posts from Twitter and other social media are represented as white lights on the tree, whereas messages from ChristmasSpiritTree.ca or text messages are visualized as a spiral of blue lights moving up the tree accompanied by flashing strobe lights all over. And, the brightness of the lights represents the total number of per-minute messages being shared across the country, so at times when online sharing is at its highest, the tree will shine at its brightest.

Canadian Tire’s Christmas survey also provides a glimpse into Canadians’ feelings about the festive season and their own Christmas spirit:

Putting up the Christmas tree (93%), holiday shopping (92%) and attending children’s holiday pageants (86%) are the activities that most spark their Christmas Spirit

27 per cent feel that Santa Claus most represents their Christmas spirit because he’s a jolly gift-giver

18 per cent most relate to Santa’s elves because they are busy finishing last-minute Christmas errands

50 per cent claim that they can name every reindeer that pulls Santa’s sleigh

The majority (84%) of Canadians unwrap gifts with their families on Christmas Day with only 44 per cent reporting they do it on Christmas Eve

The Christmas Spirit Tree will be on display at Toronto Union Station from December 12-26 from 6:00 a.m. tomidnight EST daily and can be viewed via live stream at ChristmasSpiritTree.ca and on screens at Yonge-Dundas Square. Media are welcome to film and photograph the tree. Daily Spirit Tree metrics and statistics, including provincial breakdowns, are available on request.